Family sues Hampton University for $15 million in student's drowning

The family of a Hampton University student who drowned at a university pool party in March has filed a wrongful death suit against the university.

The lawsuit, filed on Aug. 9, alleges that Hampton was negligent in providing for the safety of students at the event, which the university denies. The family is seeking $15 million in damages.

On March 20, Hampton hosted a pool party for students at Holland Hall. David Esan, a 17-year-old freshman at Hampton University, was found unconscious at the bottom of the pool as the party was ending and students were leaving. Esan was transported to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead. The death was found to be an accidental drowning by the medical examiner's office.

In the wake of Esan's death, his family publicly called for an independent criminal investigation of the incident. Hampton Commonwealth's Attorney Anton Bell authorized the city's police to work with Hampton University Police in a joint investigation. The findings were to be reported to Bell.

Information from that investigation was not available at press time.

The suit filed by Esan's family says the two lifeguards on duty were socializing and dancing with students at the party instead of monitoring swimmers and allowed students to engage in dangerous behaviors, such as dunking other students' heads underwater, throwing other students in the pool and jumping off the pool's diving board onto other students.

The suit says the lifeguards were "ignoring or flouting nationally recognized safety rules" and because Hampton took no steps to rectify the lifeguards' behavior, the university "ratified and condoned it."

In court documents obtained by the Daily Press, Hampton denies that it was negligent and that its lifeguards weren't paying attention during the party. The university argues the family has no basis for damages because Esan was "contributorily negligent" and "assumed the risk when he entered the pool's deep end." The school asks that the case be dismissed.

The suit indicates and Hampton's response confirms that it was Hampton University football player Rayshad "Ray-Ray" Riddick — not one of the two lifeguards on duty — who found Esan after diving into the pool.

Esan was recovered from the bottom of the pool by students and not by lifeguards, the suit alleges, and students administered CPR while one lifeguard stood by and multiple students called 911. The other lifeguard eventually made his way over and took over CPR before Esan was transported to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead, the suit says.

The suit also cites a Hampton city code that sets a ratio of lifeguards to swimmers — one lifeguard for the first 75 swimmers and one lifeguard for every 50 beyond that — saying that there were insufficient lifeguards to cover the party. The suit says there were two lifeguards on duty and more than 200 students in attendance, which would have required at least three lifeguards under Hampton code.

An attorney representing Hampton University said Wednesday there were three Red Cross-certified lifeguards on duty at the party.